Fire Emblem: Fuuin no Tsurugi

Fire Emblem: Fuuin no Tsurugi
Also known as: Fire Emblem: The Sword of Seal(s), Fire Emblem: (The) Binding Blade Developer: Intelligent Systems Publisher: Nintendo Platform: Game Boy Advance Released in JP: March 29, 2002 This game has unused enemies. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused items. This game has a notes page

This page sucks. If you could make it suck less, that would be awesome. Specifically: Lots of content lifted directly from this site. Please rewrite the plagiarized sections and give proper credit.

To do: Info on the event-only battle maps. Look at the Chinese localization prototype. Document custom palettes assigned to bosses that go unused due to oversights. There are unused tiles for drawbridges in some of the tilesets.

Fire Emblem: Fuuin no Tsurugi is the sixth entry in the series and the first one for the Game Boy Advance. The subtitle can be translated as The Sword of Seal(s) or The Binding Blade (depending on the source; the latter being the official English title), but the game is more colloquially known as "the one with Roy in it", whose earlier appearance in Super Smash Bros. Melee brought exposure to the series worldwide. Despite this, Nintendo chose to keep this one in Japan, as they had done with all the prior entries. Thankfully, they would see the error of their ways with the next game in the series.

Unused Enemies

William

A boss named ウィリアム (William). He shares his portrait with Roberts, a mini-boss who appears as a reinforcement in the hard mode version of Chapter 11A. He does not have a custom palette for battles.

His character base stats are as follows:

ID	Level	HP	Str/Mag	Skill	Speed	Luck	Defense	Resistance	Description
0x54	7	8	6	1	0	4	1	1	(Blank)

Note that if he were to actually be used, these would be added to a class's base stats (likely Paladin in this case) to get a full set of statistics.

Idunn

Idunn in her human form only appears in cutscenes as an NPC Shaman in the final game. She uses her unhooded portrait that is otherwise only used in a cutscene before the final battle. She does not have a custom palette for battles.

Her character base stats are as follows:

ID	Level	HP	Str/Mag	Skill	Speed	Luck	Defense	Resistance	Description
0x65	4	2	1	1	1	5	0	2	『暗闇の巫女』 ゼフィールの命を受け 世界の『解放』を目指す (The Dark Priestess. Seeks to liberate the world by Zephiel's command.)

Note that if she were to actually be used, these would be added to a class's base stats (likely female Shaman in this case) to get a full set of statistics.

(Source: Serenes Forest)

Unused Classes

• Divine Dragon: This class is used to facilitate Fae's Manakete's transformation mechanic in her battle animations to enable swapping to an entirely different animation from human form during combat. As a result, it behaves somewhat irregularly if one attempts to use it as a regular class as it was never intended to be used as such. Due to being unneeded, the class does not have an idle standing sprite, instead using a crop of the head from the movement frames as placeholder. Additionally, the map sprites use a custom palette that differs from the standard map sprite palette and does not look correct when loaded as a normal class as a result.

The class's battle animations are set to be played when using Anima, Dark, or Light magic, instead of dragonstones, weapon types the Manakete class typically cannot use. This may be due to their breath attacks using the same animation system as magic, as all magic classes are set to be able to use all magic types, animation-wise.

Base stats

HP	Strength	Magic	Skill	Speed	Luck	Defense	Resistance	Movement	Constitution
40	10	N/A	5	5	0	12	10	8	25

Max stats

HP	Strength	Magic	Skill	Speed	Luck	Defense	Resistance	Movement	Constitution
80	30	N/A	30	30	30	30	30	15	25

• Fire Dragon: This class is used to facilitate the enemy Manakete's transformation mechanic in their battle animations to enable swapping to an entirely different animation from human form during combat. As a result, it behaves somewhat irregularly if one attempts to use it as a regular class as it was never intended to be used as such. Due to being unneeded, the class does not have an idle standing sprite, instead using a crop of the head from the movement frames as placeholder. Additionally, the map sprites use a custom palette that differs from the standard map sprite palette and does not look correct when loaded as a normal class as a result.

The class's battle animations are set to be played when using Anima, Dark, or Light magic, instead of dragonstones, weapon types the Manakete class typically cannot use. This may be due to their breath attacks using the same animation system as magic, as all magic classes are set to be able to use all magic types, animation-wise.

Base stats

HP	Strength	Magic	Skill	Speed	Luck	Defense	Resistance	Movement	Constitution
40	10	N/A	5	5	0	12	10	8	25

Max stats

HP	Strength	Magic	Skill	Speed	Luck	Defense	Resistance	Movement	Constitution
80	30	N/A	28	28	30	30	28	15	25

• Female Mercenary: Has an alternative map sprite which resembles a cross between the final Mercenary and Myrmidon designs, but no battle animations.

Base stats

HP	Strength	Magic	Skill	Speed	Luck	Defense	Resistance	Movement	Constitution
16	3	N/A	5	6	0	2	0	5	8

Max stats

HP	Strength	Magic	Skill	Speed	Luck	Defense	Resistance	Movement	Constitution
60	20	N/A	20	20	30	20	20	15	20

• Female Cavalier: Features moving map sprites and an early version of the Fighter's map sprite as placeholder for the cursor hover frames. The map sprites seem to have been made in an earlier palette and do not display properly in the final release's map sprite palette. It lacks battle animations.

Base stats

HP	Strength	Magic	Skill	Speed	Luck	Defense	Resistance	Movement	Constitution
18	5	N/A	3	3	0	6	0	7	9

Note:The class holds a base weapon rank of D in swords and E in lances. The reverse of the ranks its male-counterpart holds.

Max stats

HP	Strength	Magic	Skill	Speed	Luck	Defense	Resistance	Movement	Constitution
60	20	N/A	20	20	30	20	20	15	20

• Female Paladin: Features moving map sprites and an early version of the Fighter's map sprite as placeholder for the cursor hover frames. The map sprites seem to have been made in an earlier palette and do not display properly in the final release's map sprite palette. It lacks battle animations.

Base stats

HP	Strength	Magic	Skill	Speed	Luck	Defense	Resistance	Movement	Constitution
23	6	N/A	6	11	0	7	6	8	10

Note:The class holds a base weapon rank of C in swords and D in lances, while its male counterpart's weapon ranks are the reverse.

Max stats

HP	Strength	Magic	Skill	Speed	Luck	Defense	Resistance	Movement	Constitution
60	24	N/A	28	24	30	24	26	15	20

Unused Items

The game has a handful of unused items.

ID	Icon	Name	Inventory description	Use menu description	Notes
0x4F		ウオッチ Watch	屋根で見えなくなっている場所を 見えるようにします (Provides visibility to areas obscured by roofs.)	見えない場所を のぞきます (Peek into unseen areas.)	Nonfunctional when used, even if the unit has the requisite staff rank of C and is in the presence of covered buildings.
0x55		魔竜石 Demonstone (lit. "Demon Dragonstone")	謎の力を秘めた石 戦闘時には・・・ (A stone that hides a mysterious power. When in battle...)	イドゥン専用 (Idunn only)	This presumably was an early weapon for the game's final boss, Idunn, the Demon Dragon. However, it does not function properly if given to her, as it softlocks the game when it attempts to play animations. The statistical bonuses granted by it are +15 strength, +15 skill, +20 defense, and +15 resistance.
0x66		はね橋のカギ Drawbridge Key	(Blank)	はね橋をおろし 渡れるようにします (Lowers drawbridges, allowing units to cross them.)	Drawbridges appear as obstacles in other games in the series. This item was possibly discarded earlier in development than the Demonstone and Watch Staff, as unlike the other items it has a blank description when viewed in inventory management screens.

• A name string for ブリザード (Blizzard) exists between エイルカリバー (Aircalibur) and ｻﾝﾀﾞｰｽﾄｰﾑ (Thunderstorm/Bolting), though there appears to be no actual item data for it. Tomes named Blizzard appear in other games in the series.

Unused Graphics

Dummy Portrait

Like the other two later GBA Fire Emblem releases, this game's first portrait in the data is a dummy portrait. Unlike the shared dummy portrait appearing in both The Blazing Blade and The Sacred Stones, this one is different. It appears to be an actual portrait with greatly simplified shading, though its general shape doesn't exactly match any used portrait.

Boss Portrait Palettes

Wagner, Legance, Randy, Oates, Raith, and Monke each have two unused palette swaps near the end of the portrait list, while Orlo has just one. While every one of these characters has his portrait recolored for at least one other boss, the eleven color variations shown here are not used by any characters. Perhaps worth noting, Wagner and Raith each have an unused portrait recolor bearing strong similarities to the colors of minor Black Fang bosses from The Blazing Blade.

• 

  0xE5 Wagner, green robes

• 

  0xE6 Wagner, brown robes (Early Zoldam?)

• 

  0xDE Legance, blue armor

• 

  0xDF Legance, red armor

• 

  0xD6 Orlo, orange robes

• 

  0xCA Randy, white hair

• 

  0xCC Randy, green hair

• 

  0xC5 Oates, green robes

• 

  0xC8 Oates, orange robes

• 

  0xE1 Raith, black armor

• 

  0xE2 Raith, red armor (Early Wire?)

• 

  0xCF Monke, yellow coat

• 

  0xD0 Monke, teal coat

Battle Palettes

Early-game bosses Damas, Ruud, Slater, Erik, Dory, and Debias all have fully-functional personal battle palettes defined for them in the game's data. Slater and Debias' palettes are actually duplicates of each other, with only extremely minor differences from the generic enemy palette for the Knight class. Additionally, Bartre also has an unused palette that seems to be intended for him as a Fighter, which naturally goes unseen due to him only ever appearing as a Warrior in The Binding Blade. The boss palettes, meanwhile, don't show up in game because the bosses are all unpromoted classes, while the palettes are mistakenly assigned as their promoted palettes. Oops.

• 

  0x59 Damas

• 

  0x57 Ruud

• 

  0x58 Slater and 0x56 Debias

• 

  0x39 Erik

• 

  0x5A Dory

• 

  0x19 Bartre as a Fighter

World Map Names

There are several English graphics for unused place names from the World Map.

• 

  Phestos

• 

  Siene

• 

  Alesia

• 

  Terina

• 

  Calach

• 

  Regia

Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 Item Icons

Several icons from the previous game in the series, Fire Emblem: Thracia 776, are left in the game, albeit with a different palette. None of them are associated with item data. Pre-release screenshots of Fuiin no Tsurugi show that icons from Thracia 776 were used as placeholders earlier in development.

From left to right, the item icons belonged to the following in Thracia 776: Sleep Staff, Torch Staff, Return Staff (also unused in Thracia 776), Repair Staff, Thief Staff, Watch Staff (also unused in Thracia 776), Berserk Staff, Unlock Staff, Barrier Staff, Rewarp Staff, Kia Staff, Broken Staff, Luck Ring, Life Ring, Speed Ring.

Unused Growth Rates

Yoder has growth rates despite joining at the maximum possible level, meaning he never gets to utilize them. You're not missing out on much here.

Character	HP	Str/Mag	Skill	Speed	Luck	Defense	Resistance
Yoder	20%	30%	15%	10%	20%	10%	20%

Event Distribution Maps

To do: Are these still around and dumpable and/or in the ROM itself?

4 of the trial maps can only be obtained through promotional events that were held in Japan via V-Jump Magazine. Very little is known about these 4 trial maps as the events were very limited in scope. These 4 trial maps are:

• Graizel Execution Court
• V-shaped Map
• J-shaped Map
• Defeat Bandits

(Source: Fireemblemwiki.net)

Thief Stealing AI Oversight/Oddity

In the game, playable thieves can only steal items, not weapons. Enemy Thieves follow this rule... mostly. What enemy thieves will steal is determined by a list of items. Curiously, this list features four items (three of which are... weapons) that probably shouldn't be there. These items are the Firestone, the Divinestone, the Demonstone, and the Bridge Key.

The Bridge Key is a completely unused item, and is likely left over from earlier in development. It being there has no obvious effects on the player end of things.

The Dragonstones are another matter. Since they are weapons, the player cannot steal them back if an enemy steals them, meaning that Fae (the playable dragon character who uses the Divinestone) can possibly permanently lose her unique personal weapon. Not to mention the unused Demonstone.

The Firestone being here, meanwhile, results in the infamous exploit that allows a berserked player thief to steal a Firestone (since berserked characters are under the control of enemy unit AI) from an enemy dragon, something not normally possible.

Regional Differences

Like many iQue GBA localizations, the unreleased iQue prototype translated many text and images that were left in English in the Japanese original.

Japan	China (Proto)

Japan	China (Proto)

Japan	China (Proto)

There is a minor graphical bug in the unit list where the "力" part of the category header doesn't scroll properly during transitions.